Westfield boys cross country opened the week at third in milesplit.com’s state rankings following a strong showing at the Cherokee Challenge last Saturday. The race, divided by grade, saw gritty efforts from each group. Juniors Avery Keith and Tage Mehta both ran under 10 minutes in the two-mile race.
“We expect to win,” Mehta said on Friday. “We’ve put together great training and have a ton of depth.”
Keith echoed these sentiments. “This is the best team we’ve had in a while, definitely the best Junior class we’ve ever had,” he said. And the Juniors showed just that, with five finishers in the top 10 of a 280-man race.
The upperclassmen were not the only ones with strong performances. Westfield saw its only race winner in the Sophomore group behind Ryan Daly’s stellar effort, which won the race with a time of 10:02.
Westfield came home feeling good, but the team understands this is just the beginning. “It’s important that we not get ahead of ourselves and focus on the day-to-day training. If we stay focused, great things will happen,” said Daniel Cortese, one of the four senior captains on the team.
As the boys shift their focus to the rest of the season, it comes with an understanding that a state championship is a real possibility. Coach Chris Tafelski spoke on the team’s prospects: “My focus is that we get better every day, accumulate a body of work, and not get too ahead of ourselves,” he said. “If we develop every race, that’s a lot of improvement, and big things can happen.”
This sentiment is echoed by Mehta, who, when asked to describe the team, simply said, “we’re nasty.”
